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Several words from the Norwegian language have entered common usage in English. Due to the Arctic climate of much of Norway, most of the words have something to do with either ice, skiing (indeed, ski is of Norwegian origin) or the cold.
Many of the words entered English during the time the Vikings lived on Great Britain. They can also be said to come from Danish (Denmark), since Norwegian and Danish were not separate languages at the time, but part of a dialect continuum.
Names of some places in Great Britain have Norwegian origin. Examples are Grimsby, Hornby and others ending with -by. ("By" is Norwegian for town/city)
- awkward
- bag
- (bag actually came into English from Old Norse, and has in latter years again become a Norwegian word, taken from English, after having been a forgotten word)
- cog
- equip (via french)
- fjord
- floe (as in ice floe)
- get
- husband
- iceberg
- kraken
- krill
- lemming
- nudge
- quisling
- rig (as in a ship's "riggings")
- score
- silt
- ski
- sky
- slalom
- steak
- they
- walrus
- window
- York (jord
- earth, vik: bay)
See also: Lists of English words of international origin
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